


the way you look tonight

by AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Ballroom Dancing, Designer Marinette Dupain-Cheng, F/M, Fashion & Couture, Ladrien | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Podfic Welcome, Romance, only no actual dancing for which I am sorry, they both want to, yes no maybe sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 04:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18652813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: The Agreste Foundation chose Heroes' Day to host the annual charity gala. Again. Adrien does not want to be there. Again. Hawkmoth may attack. Again.But if Ladybug might be there, then who is Adrien to complain?





	the way you look tonight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [universeEnthusiast](https://archiveofourown.org/users/universeEnthusiast/gifts).



Adrien was twitchy, and who could blame him? Even if the Agreste Foundation Charity Gala weren't filled with strangers who thought themselves his acquaintances and with acquaintances who thought themselves his friends (it was), avoidable only by constantly keeping moving (he was) as though he had just seen someone across the room he urgently needed to speak to (he hadn't); even if there weren't thirty conversations within fifteen meters (there were) and even if he could listen to any or none without the rest demanding his attention (he couldn't); even if he could be simply _Adrien_ here and enjoy the gala (or not) on his own terms, not Adrien _Agreste_ enjoying the gala whether he liked it or not (he _really_ couldn't)…

They'd chosen Heroes' Day to host the gala. Just like last year.

Hawkmoth hadn't tried to repeat last year's drama.

Yet.

Adrien lifted his water glass, weaving through the crowd.

"You sure look like you're having fun," remarked a familiar dry voice.

Adrien bobbled the glass and nearly dropped it. The glass escaped its fate only because Ladybug's spotted glove steadied it before she set it on a nearby table.

"You _like_ scaring the life out of me," he accused, catching his breath.

…To be fair, Chat Noir liked startling Ladybug too, and Marinette and several other people. And almost no one but Ladybug could sneak up on Adrien anymore, _because_ Ladybug liked startling Chat Noir right back.

Ladybug was blushing under her mask and behind the locks of dark hair left free to frame her face in what was undoubtedly a carefully arranged loose bun—though knowing her, it was as likely she'd actually done it herself in under five minutes with only that red silk rose and her ribbons as that she'd gotten Rena Rouge or Chloé to meticulously do it for her.

"I'm sorry," said Ladybug, and it took a moment for Adrien to backtrack his thoughts to realize what for. "I didn't mean to startle you—though it's good to know I can, I suppose," she added. "Chat Noir conned me into stealth training, and you are notoriously hard to surprise, Adrien."

He shrugged, noncommittal. (Stealth training, was it? _Ha_. Though if 'there are serious and important reasons for this' was what got her to relax and have fun with him, well, he'd take that.) "I'm surprised you're here at all. I thought your whole team would be out on alert."

"The others are," Ladybug assured him: an equal lie. "We were all invited, and Chat Noir thought one of us should be here, to show Paris our indomitable spirit or whatever it was he said, and everyone else said Not It too fast. Even Queen Bee."

'Indomitable spirit' was better phrasing than he'd actually used, and he'd warned Rena and Carapace first; he'd already known Chloé didn't want to come. "I'm glad you came," Adrien told her. "You look stunning."

Ladybug leaned toward him with a confident little smirk. "How do you know?" she asked, pink-cheeked. "You haven't looked."

Hadn't h—

No, actually, she _hadn't_ transformed, redone her hair, and called it good. Her familiar black-spotted red armor was visibly the same it had always been, but over it—that was a custom-designed gown, it had to be. Black lace in a delicate floral pattern, without a lining fabric and with a high enough neckline to visually blend with her collar. Long sleeves—right now the fabric flowed from muscled shoulder to slim wrist, but both sleeves were slit to the elbow and could drape like wings if she undid the buttons at wrist and mid-forearm. Column silhouette, with the hem slashing from a few centimeters above her right ankle to a few below her left, and some black piping to reinforce the seams and more for artistic effect. She wore low black heels with ribbons that twined up both her calves. Her yo-yo sat as always at her hip, and of course she wore her earrings, and Adrien had to lean closer to be sure the crimson enamel rose was a pendant on a black-dyed chain, not a brooch.

"…now I feel underdressed," said Adrien, once he had put his eyes back in his head.

Ladybug looked him up and down, taking in his precisely tailored suit—perfectly cravate noire except Adrien had snuck in a bow tie of marigold silk to trade for the black one the moment he got in the door—and raised her eyebrows.

"I mean it, Ladybug," he told her. "Who designed this? And I am obligated out of family loyalty to ask this," he clarified, lowering his voice, "because Gabriel Fashions demands more loyalty from its people than it ever gives to them, but—who does my father have to bribe in order to get that designer working for him?"

Ladybug's face abruptly matched her armor; she fumbled to extract something from her yo-yo. "It's that good?"

"It's that good." Adrien considered who he knew, and who Ladybug might know, made her own clothes. "Is it Marinette? I bet it's Marinette," he said, grinning, and took the business card Ladybug held out. Which— "I win."

She snorted, her color fading. "What were the stakes again?"

Adrien glanced toward the stage, where the piano quartet was wrapping up a slow piece, and returned his attention to Ladybug, putting on his best suave. "Dance with me?"

Ladybug pinked back up. "I have two left feet," she warned.

"I can't imagine why I don't believe you," Adrien told her, and she giggled. "But I have two right feet, so it—"

Ladybug's yo-yo rang.

She opened it and glared. "Nice timing, Rena."

" _Come take it out on the akuma,_ " Rena's voice invited her.

"Fuck everything," Ladybug snapped, balancing on one foot to disentangle the other from her shoe. " _Everything_. Adrien, get me out of this dress?"

…Yeah. Yeah, she wouldn't want to fight in a Marinette original, would she? That was…that was all she meant. Adrien moved behind her to steady her shoulder and unzip the gown, his whole body burning.

Ladybug stepped out of the lace gown and shoved it and both shoes into Adrien's arms, then unclasped her pendant and threw it on top. "I'll want that dance later," she told him, and smiled, and before he could figure out what even to say, she was running for the door, coordinating with Rena on the way.

Adrien had…probably better find where to put this. So it wouldn't be damaged or stolen. Since he couldn't both carry it around the gala and go fight by her side.

("Oh, shut _up_ ," he told Plagg the moment he found a private enough spot for Plagg to poke his uproariously laughing head out. "She wants to dance with me!")

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Dreamwidth](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/) and [Tumblr](http://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/).


End file.
